When looking at the list of competitors before the IEM Katowice tournament began on Friday, it was probably a knee jerk – and completely rational – conclusion to assume Korean team SK Telecom T1 would win it all. By the time the last Nexus was destroyed, it was clear that you were right. A 3-0 sweep of Fnatic solidifies SKT as a nigh unstoppable force on the international tournament circuit.
Since their creation in late 2012, SKT has become synonymous with international gold. Most recently, they dominated the 2015 World Championships, as well as the All-Star event in 2014. Versus the OCE and LCS, they’re a mysterious puzzle of a team that no one has successfully solved. This is not the story in their home region, the LCK.
With rose colored glasses and persistent memories of the absolute devastation they left in their paths at Worlds, it’s incredibly strange to see them hovering around an incredibly mediocre 5-4 record, only 6th place out of 10. How could the SKT we know be the same team among its regional peers?
Well, to be fair, it isn’t. Top laner MaRiN left the team shortly after Worlds and joined LGD Gaming. He is was often considered the team’s shot caller, putting together some of the teams more brilliant fighting and objective hoarding strategies together on the fly. His replacement, Duke, has hopped from team to team all over that division since 2013. He’s a well regarded player, favoring Poppy or Dr. Mundo during the pick stage, and he’s a talented playmaker in his own right. He’s also one of the best top laners in the LCK right now. Maybe he just doesn’t fit in yet? Or maybe MaRiN was a bigger part of their collective success than commonly recognized?
SKT definitely isn’t getting worse. Each remaining member of the squad has shown improvement in their KDA from last Spring Split to this one, over twice as many games. Bang and Wolf specifically are still among the best AD/Support combos in that division. Faker is definitely better than last year, but he’s still not the most impressive mid laner in the LCK, which is hard to imagine. It’s an important point to make, though, because SKT’s middling standings has more to do with the overall quality of that division and less to do with some sort of easy-to-define weakness in SKT.
SKT’s long time division rivals, The ROX Tigers (formerly KOO Tigers), have taken the LCK by storm this split. Smeb and Peanut have lead that charge, but the whole team has shown great improvement over last year and have avenged their 2nd place showing at Worlds many times over at this point. The Jin Air Green Wings are a new team but have found their footing very quickly, and KT Rolster has always been a top performer among those teams. The LCK just seems to be way more competitive than the LCS, which should be quite the omen for fans of TSM and Fnatic.
If SKT can come across the pond and demolish any given EU or US team, is there any real hope against the Korean teams that are beating them? Faker’s squad is an exotic League of Legends machine that exudes precision and execution in ways our favorite teams have never seen. They are also just a mediocre team in the highest level region in the world.
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